Patch 5.3 introduces a new world event, Battlefield Barrens, that explores the conflict between the Alliance, Horde, and Garrosh. There's a ton of stuff to do and collect as part of this event--but it's only around for a limited amount of time.

We've updated our guide to Mists of Pandaria's unique legendary questline with a summary of all the new quests and rewards found in Patch 5.2. Completing all the new steps will reward you with a legendary metagem and Chapter III: Two Princes. The new gems are as follows:

This is a bit of a change from obtaining a Sha-Touched weapon in 5.0 and then enhancing it in 5.1, but as explained in our recent Blizzard dev interview, obtaining a weapon is an exciting moment in a new tier and making players constantly upgrade a Sha-Touched weapon would take away that fun. If you still really want a Sha-Touched weapon for either looks or stats, the droprate has been increased in LFR.

The Isle of Thunder is a new zone in 5.2 that is the location of a server-wide War Effort, new factions, and daily quests. However, there's a lot of vanity-related content as well, for players that dislike dailies.

This guide aims to cover the basics of completing your new dailies, but also to highlight all the other things you can do on the island. Since you access more content as you progress through the War Effort, we've also pointed out what things you can do now, and what things you'll have to wait a few weeks on.

Unlike factions tied to MoP's launch, the factions on the Isle of Thunder are not tied to getting raid-quality gear or unlocking dailies for other factions. While you can complete twelve dailies a day, it's possible to have fun on Isle of Thunder without doing any dailies and simply enjoying the other content, such as killing rare spawns, getting <Name> Stormbreaker for completing achievements, and farming troll transmog gear.

Patch 5.2 is imminent and Blizzard just released a big preview of the questing zone you'll be spending a lot of time in Patch 5.2--Isle of Thunder. It's not just another daily quest hub though, as it's a full-out server War Effort with interesting transmog drops, battle pets, single-player scenarios, and more!

We've also got a roundup of the other excellent interviews Blizzard conducted last week with official fansites. We interviewed Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas last week about raid design, from everything to LFR to heroic-only bosses, and were impressed by the level of detail in his answers.

Click the cut to read Blizzard's official Isle of Thunder and links to fansite interviews!

Ah, love is in the air in the World of Warcraft: sweet flowers, perfume, and sharing gifts with loved ones! But, what's this? A sinister plot is afoot involving some shady goblin newcomers to the seasonal market--the Crown Chemical Company! It's up to us to help save Azeroth from their chemically altered goods all while spreading love and appreciation to our faction leaders and fellow players!

Love is in the Air starts on February 10 at 12:01 AM and ends on February 23 at 11:59 PM. This holiday can be celebrated by the Horde in Orgrimmar and the Alliance in Stormwind City. Seasonal decorations such as wreaths, candles and ribbons can be found in all major cities and at most zone inns. Players will also find Lovely Merchants, who sell seasonal gifts and goodies.

The much-anticipated Green Fire questline for Warlocks is now testable on the 5.2 PTR. We've got a walkthrough of the quest series, transcriptions of lore events, a video of the final boss, and most importantly...the green fire!

Green Fire Spell Effects Video

Lore from TankSpot completed the challenging quest series yesterday and made a video of all the transformed abilities!

Earlier this week, the Blizzard Community Team shared notes from weekly developer meetings to fansites! While this is a partial transcript as not all questions and answers can be shared with the public, there's a ton of useful information covering a wide breadth of topics and it's a neat to see what's discussed at dev meetings.

At 1500 rating, the Arena Conquest Points Cap will now be 1800 (up from 1350), while the Rated Battleground Conquest cap will be 2200 (up from 1650). As always, when your rating increases, so will your cap.